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i have worked with many female welders, and trained some to, i have no bad things to say about them , they worked harder than most men in my shop, and if they can do just as good a job, or better than my hats off to you

thats prity cool.
40,000 pices.
do you just pre-cut 1,000 or so pices in a few basic shapes and add them as needed, or cut each one as needed ?? seems like precutting would work better but ya never know.

thanks for the help
......or..........
hope i helped feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.james@newyorkmetalart.comsummer is here, plant a tree. if you don't have space or time to plant one sponsor some one else to plant one for you. a tree is an investment in our planet, help it out.
JAMES

cutting

I pre-cut a pile of shapes and catalogue them in shallow cartons so I can pick out what I need(sometimes shards 1/2 inch long) When I start running out of a certain size I cut for a few hours. I calculated 40,000 pieces for the bears by figuring out and average size of a cut piece and doing the math with 7 sheets of steel. Could be more. Artists are not great at math. If you look at this photo you can see a box of pieces and you can also see the small version of the bears beside me...I make that first so I can work out the details before I get into trouble with the big one.

'I must also mention that moose looks even better than the real thing, but I still think if you positioned it anywhere in Alberta during hunting season, I would really fear for its safety!'

Ah yes, but there WOULD be ricochet!
.....and Dabar, what beautiful work to be a part of![/QUOTE]

I am very familiar with ricochets as they seem occur quite close to me every time I fire up the old Trail Blazer to engage in my "art work"! Beats me as to why...? I guess I'm lucky that my critics shoot like I weld!

weldress, Everyone I have shown your sculptures to have all had the same amount of amazement you've given me. Outstanding work on all of these, but, I would have to say the grizzlies are my favorites so far. Dave

If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!

indoor pieces

I do a lot of indoor pieces...this is a Great Grey Owl, life-size...the piece stands 71/2 feet high, the bird is 36" head to tail, stainless, brass, 22 guage sheet steel, steel rod, pipe, oxy-acetylene welded.
I guess posting artwork has not caught on although I know there are a lot more artists out there, full and part-time.
Looking at what people do on the side with welding proves proves that nothing is impossible. The Hobart site someone mentioned does have a lot, however.

I am not into producing art in my welding(although a piece of metal with a good weld or a finely machined piece is still a turn-on to me. Your work is wonderful. Meeting you, I'm sure would be a pleasure. You have in you what the average person can not understand. I'm sure every piece welded on to make your art, has its memory..........Nick

Weldress, I, and probably many of us here, have no problems envisioning a job with a real practical purpose, something that has to perform a service, I have a great admiration for those (like yourself) who can come up with a concept, and using the skills of our trade (or any other trade for that matter), and bring this concept to life.

Getting back to the subject of female welders, I know one that'll put most guys to shame, grew up on a family dairy farm (where everybody worked, an immigrant Swiss/Italian family, started with nothing, and nobody got a free ride), this lady went and got a full nursing degree, had a great job, OR room nurses around here get close to six figure incomes, sometimes over. Anyhow, her brothers kept the farm going, great dairymen, great farmers, good businessmen, but not a whole lot of mechanical aptitude. After a few years, she noticed, equipment running down, quit the nursing job, moved back, kicked everybody out of the shop. Does all the mechanics, all the welding repairs, all the new fab work. I've seen her build new silage dump boxes on ten-wheelers, and for a 110 - 120 pound person she can sure swing a mean sledgehammer

Hi Weldress - me, too-female welder

Your work is amazing. Thanks for sharing the pics.
I do a lot of "functional metal work" - gates, fireplace screens, some kinetic sculptures, furniture, etc. I also work with a fused-glass artist and we do some joint art pieces.
I was a mechanical engineer in my former life, then built an adobe house in 1987 but couldn't find light sconces that I liked. I signed up for a welding class and realized I found my calling. Was able to quit engineering in 1992 and now I just weld and play full time. There's nothing better than chalking out the opening size on the garage floor then sitting there and creating a gate! (or a bear!) cat